Weather Ignorance. Comic Relief.

[Swimdude]

Basically, this is a thread for anyone who'd like to share a story. Tell us the most outrageous display of weather ignorance you've ever witnessed!

Just a few hours ago, while I was at blockbusters, I heard a woman talking to the cashier about the weather. [It's been windy, rainy, and quite menacing here in Houston, all day.] The woman said, and I quote...

"I heard there was this tornado... That formed into a hurricane... And I don't know where it is! I'm worried, because it's really looking dark out there..."



Share your story!

[HurricaneGirl]

That's funny dude!

[Frank2]

Not to get serious on this thread, but, earlier today I happened to see a news piece of a Congresswoman's comments earlier this week, concerning how Americans and American communities still seem unprepared for disaster, in spite of what happened four years ago tomorrow.

I've also heard comments that make me shiver - earlier in the summer, we had a particularly severe thunderstorm (of the afternoon heating variety), and someone I work with called the office and asked me if this was due to a hurricane. It seems that many in our society just do not pay attention to what is happening around them - though they can usually tell you what happened last night on American Idol...

Frank

[SouthFloridawx]

Not to get serious on this thread, but, earlier today I happened to see a news piece of a Congresswoman's comments earlier this week, concerning how Americans and American communities still seem unprepared for disaster, in spite of what happened four years ago tomorrow.

I've also heard comments that make me shiver - earlier in the summer, we had a particularly severe thunderstorm (of the afternoon heating variety), and someone I work with called the office and asked me if this was due to a hurricane. It seems that many in our society just do not pay attention to what is happening around them - though they can usually tell you what happened last night on American Idol...

Frank

Hey frank... Generations raised by tv perhaps. People always ask me where the storm is going and I try to tell them just to get prepared. It was funny when when Katrina came through reminds me of a story. A few days before Katrina my girlfriend and I had agreed to watch a friends kid cause she wanted to go to this concert in Fort Lauderdale. . He's about 2 years old right and the day katrina was coming through I was talking to my girlfriend and this girl still wanted us to watch her baby that night while the storm was going to make landfall. So I called her and said hey do you want to come over to my uncles cause I got supplies, water, food and a generator set up there cause my uncle is in the process of moving. This was around noon and she was getting mad at me cause she wanted me watch her kid and there was a hurricane coming through fort lauderdale that night. She was telling me that it was only a catagory one just a big rain storm that's all. I started getting really irritated cause my girlfriend was getting mad at me. I didn't want to watch him because if something happend to her it would have been bad. Well I said I'm not doing it and went to my uncles with my cousin. It just gets me the ignorace of some people and how something bad has to happen to them before they realize it. Makes me sick and to think off all the people who stayed during katrina along the gulf coast. Ok thanks for listening

[SouthFloridawx]

P.S. BTW her power went off at her house and ended up coming over and apologizing and hanging out later. She told me earlier that day that it's not like the power is going to go out or anything it is a only a Cat 1. She told me I made her realize how selfish she was being and that I was only looking out for everyone's best interest's. I do appriciate that she apologized by the way... Nothing like being right lol....

[wxwatcher91]

It seems that many in our society just do not pay attention to what is happening around them - though they can usually tell you what happened last night on American Idol...

Frank

thank you very much for bring that up!

as funny as it is sometimes, I am most disturbed by things brought up to me by others.

during 2003 Isabel someone came up to me and said that we could get some of the outer feederbands of Isabel that night.

I gave the person credit for knowing the word feederband but Isabel had was still about four thousand miles from where we were (Keene, NH) and I'm guessing the only reason the person knew of Isabel was because it had reached cat 5 intensity and was now the story for media outlet

[SouthFloridawx]

It seems that many in our society just do not pay attention to what is happening around them - though they can usually tell you what happened last night on American Idol...

Frank

thank you very much for bring that up!

as funny as it is sometimes, I am most disturbed by things brought up to me by others.

during 2003 Isabel someone came up to me and said that we could get some of the outer feederbands of Isabel that night.

I gave the person credit for knowing the word feederband but Isabel had was still about four thousand miles from where we were (Keene, NH) and I'm guessing the only reason the person knew of Isabel was because it had reached cat 5 intensity and was now the story for media outlet

It is so funny to hear people use weather terminology. haha I love that one so many come to mind like hear people describe warm and cold fronts.

[MiamiensisWx]

I agree with Frank2. It really is scary how foolish other people can be...

Sorry if I sound offending, but that is just how I feel...

[coriolis]

This is not about ignorance in the same sense - it's more bittersweet.
My dear mother in law is elderly and is gradually losing her faculties. When the weather channel is talking about weather - anywhere in the CONUS, she looks outside and wonders why it's not doing that outside. When they talk about tornados in Oklahoma, she gets worried about us here in Pennsylvania. We have to keep our sense of humor about it.

[Swimdude]

Ok yeah, everyone knows that ignorance towards weather can be dangerous, but that isn't what this thread is for! I'm not asking for stories where a shopkeeper looks out their window, sees cows flying by and a large funnel reaching towards the ground, and says, "By golly, I think we're having another one of them hurricoynes!"

That's not funny; that's dangerous. I realize that.

Try to focus on the amusing aspects, such as my story. [See top post.] That woman was in no real danger.

[Bob the Leprechaun]

I did have a coworker tell me some time back that a hurricane had been downgraded to a tornado.

[mspegasus]

hello, I know i am up late and my eyes are playing tricks.. but this is a comment for this thread I just read from the link below. uhhh arent those coordinates in the atlantic? Hurricane Ophelia "struck the United States."?



"Hurricane Ophelia struck the United States at about 21:00 GMT on 10 September. Data supplied by the US National Hurricane Center suggest that the point of landfall was near 31.8 N, 76.2 W. Ophelia brought 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 129 km/hr (80 mph). Wind gusts in the area may have been considerably higher."


http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/relief ... N_AL16.htm

[Meso]

I can't take it when people get terms messed up... Especially in the media... eg : The other day we had some wind in the usually cold front with upper trough... A few days later I see sign boards up from a news paper saying "Mini torndado hits Cape Town:.. No.1 : There was no thunderous activity with this front, Just usually 80km gusts, etc. No.2 : How can you get a "Mini tornado", A tornado is a tornado,weak perhaps (If there had been one) ...

[TexasSam]

On Larry King, he said "September 10th. the middle of the hurricane season." Sorry Larry, it's the High point, but not the middle. June 1 - Nov. 30.

[DelrayMorris]

CNN's news anchor (forget which one) kept saying Ophelia was just off the "Gulf Coast" of Florida. He said it twice, actually.

He had picked up on the CNN weather guy saying that the Ophelia was over the gulf stream and could strengthen. It just made me laugh cause while the CNN news guys was looking the picture of Ophelia just off the ATLANTIC coast, he still kept saying GULF coast.

[milankovitch]

LARRY KING: Jesse will be in New Orleans all day tomorrow and give us a much more thorough report tomorrow night.

One other thing and I know you'll get a good lay of the land and we appreciate your being with us again tomorrow, do you question your faith when something like this happens?

JESSE JACKSON: Well, I do not. This is a physical disaster. What I do is I analyze more clearly are these series of storms based upon our affecting the climate with ozone layers because of carcinogens? I raise that question.

[jburns]

Weekend weather girl WFMY Greensboro, NC one day this August after finishing the weather had this little exchange with the weekend anchor.

Anchor: So what is the heat index today? (she didn't mention it but commented that the humidity was lower than yesterday)

WeatherBabe: Pause, two blinks, another pause. Oh well there isn't any heat index today because of the lower humidity but it will probably be back tomorrow. (temp was 85, index was 88 at the time)

PS sure enough it was back the next day.......84

[Swimdude]

Hahahaha excellent comments everyone! I especially love that hurricane being downgraded to a tornado... Must be a freak act of nature.

[LAwxrgal]

A TWC "meteorologist" referred to Ophelia as Katrina today.

[beachbum_al]

I got one and it is not really funny considering what is out on the Atlantic/East Coast. We have a friend who is in Law School at Virginia Beach. He is from Montgomery area of Alabama and has no idea what a hurricane is except the tail end of them. Anyway he calls to check on us because he know that Katrina came through. I asked him if he was prepare in case Ophelia came his way. I hope he was kidding me but he said he didn't know that there was a hurricane out there. Please say he was kidding me.